


Immortals and Vampires

by Merfilly



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Forever Knight, Highlander: The Series, Vampire Chronicles - Anne Rice
Genre: Ficlet Collection, Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-08
Updated: 2016-01-08
Packaged: 2018-05-12 15:46:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,097
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5671441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlets from <i>Buffy the Vampire Slayer</i>, <i>Forever Knight</i>, <i>Vampire Chronicles</i>, and <i>Highlander: the Series</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Immortals and Vampires

**Author's Note:**

  * For [facethestrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/facethestrange/gifts).



> Ratings vary by ficlet

Methos sat at the bar, sipping from the tumbler in front of him. Joe was fiddling with a guitar to one side, and the bar was all but empty, letting Methos have quiet and solitude to consider the latest round of events.

It felt so odd that he'd almost count these people as friends. They were assuredly allies, but he had to admit in the privacy of his mind that he enjoyed their company.

Why else was he still here, when events were unfolding toward a Gathering, if not **The** Gathering. It was everything he'd observed and heard leading up to New York some years prior.

Why? What was the nature of the Game? What drove these periodic surges to cut down, with full intent of the words, their own population, only to have it turn out to not be the end after all?

"Bah, stop being maudlin and philosophical," he told himself, draining the tumbler before he made his way out of the bar for the nearing morn.

+++++

"Are you quite certain you want to do that?" 

Rebecca didn't even let up her draw on the bow, sighted in on the distant figure about to be executed.

"Methos, do be quiet," she said.

"Why do you want to make such a stir?"

"Because death by hanging hurts, and I owe him one favor."

"He'll catch up with us before we even make the next city, and then…" Methos let his voice trail off.

"And then I will finish the dance the locals interrupted." Rebecca let the arrow fly, and then she was running for her waiting horse, as the locals erupted into chaos at the interruption of their execution. Methos joined her, shaking his head, but maybe Clay would go in a different direction once he came back to himself.

+++++

Duncan watched as Tessa made certain all of her machines were off, his attention on how fluidly she moved through her routine. She could make something so mundane as closing shop for the day become an invitation to seduction, at least so far as he was concerned.

"I started a bath for you," he said when she was satisfied and walking his way. "Since you've been working so hard."

"Then let us hurry to it, before it spills over, shall we?" she invited. "I will need my back scrubbed after all."

"I was hoping you'd say that," Duncan told her, escorting her to the waiting bath… and whatever they happened to do there.

+++++

Dawn remembered Mom helping her up from the ground after that first attempt to ride a bike. She could see Buffy defending her from a schoolyard bully. She had all the normal memories of a kid who had grown up with a big sister and it didn't matter that none of it was real.

She hung onto those memories in the wake of every obstacle, every setback. They gave her an ability to be real, inside her heart and her mind, to cope with everything the world threw at her.

She just hated it when she started to 'remember when', and Buffy went along with it until that moment where Buffy's whole body said 'that wasn't real'. Dawn locked the memories away as her treasure, and just didn't bring them up any more.

+++++

Nick looked up as he heard her enter, inhaling deeply to catch the scent that was uniquely her. "Janette," he greeted, continuing to play the piano lightly.

"I brought you a present, Nicholas," she said, approaching him with a small box. Now he did still his fingers, shifting on the bench so she could sit near him.

"Is it some occasion I forgot, Janette?" he questioned, but she shook her head. 

"I found these, and thought of you." 

Nick took the box, opening it slowly, and then he had to smile. "You have a wicked sense of humor." He leaned in to kiss her, even as he set the box on the piano, the handcuff-styled cuff-links gleaming against the black felt inside the box.

+++++

LaCroix admired the latest painting on the easel, then walked around the piano, fingers trailing over the body. His eyes took in all the mementos held by his son, his Nicholas, from the ages.

"Always so sentimental, yes?" he asked, more as a statement of fact though, as Nick came in the door.

"Why are you here?" Nick demanded. LaCroix merely smiled to that and went to the couch, settling in quite deliberately.

"My dear Nicholas, it is longest night, and I thought it most auspicious to join you for it," LaCroix said with just the right amount of sarcasm touching his voice. "However, you were not home, and day is close at hand, so I have no choice but to stay."

Nick opened his mouth, then closed it. He was not going to win, and anything he said might just start an entire day of back and forth barbs. LaCroix took the victory, and turned his attention back to analyzing all of Nick's life on display. At the very least, he would be fodder for a radio program.

+++++

_When all else is lost, comfort is found in what remains._

Nick closed his eyes as Lacroix stroked a hand along his back, letting himself fall into the path he'd found himself on. Natalie was gone. Janette did not speak to them any more, as she found her own way. 

Their lives had changed, as they always did, but Nick was uncertain just how to adapt.

"You're brooding." 

Nick opened his eyes to look at his maker, his companion, his lover… and could not deny it.

"I'm not even sure what I want anymore." 

"Then don't worry on it, and just exist for once, Nicholas." To help with that, Lacroix moved his touches into more distracting patterns.

+++++

Some nights were quiet, and Louis was able to just spoil Claudia with his company, taking her to stroll the city and enjoy life, such as it was, with her holding onto his hand. Other nights, there were moments as tempestuous as Lestat's mercurial moods, and they all three would share a vivacious argument over the latest book of philosophy one had stumbled over.

Through it all, in those early years, Claudia had what she most needed, a family. That her two fathers were not what she saw in homes she spied upon never mattered to her; they were mortal and she was not. Her Louis, and even her Lestat, were perfect to her nature.

If it could always be just like that, it would be her idea of paradise.

+++++


End file.
